Sean and I sipped on pineapple juice early Thursday morning while we waited to be picked up by our guide who eventually rolled in at around 8:30. Our guide was a local who had been educating tourists about the highlands for about 15 years. Now, he is taxi driver so we did the tour in his own taxi which was much preferred to being shuttled around in a minibus with 20 other tourists. The weather was absolutely fantastic, it felt like San Diego or Michigan on a perfect June morning. We were advised not to eat breakfast because part of the fun of touring the countryside is tasting all that it has to offer. ($1 juice, $23 room)
Our first stop involved a huge flower garden and greenhouse which offered plenty of local plants as well as exotic flowers as well. I kept thinking that "My mom would love this place!" as I found that I could name a lot of the plants because of what I've learned from my parents' gardening over the years. We even found some Dahlias! It was so refreshing and uplifting to be surrounded by blooming flowers, morning sun and clear, blue sky.
The next stop was a strawberry farm. Cameron Highlands are known for their strawberries and because the weather never changes they can grow all year round. We were shown how they are grown (hydroponically in raised beds to make the work easier) and then we were able to sample some of the local goodies. Sean and I tried a fresh strawberry milkshake, strawberry jam and dried strawberries. It was awesome. ($3 strawberry treats, $7 total of entry tickets for the day)
After the strawberry farm we went to the honey bee farm where there were over 600 different hives kept. You could tour around and watch the bees at work but you had to move very slowly. We even saw some beekeepers getting some honey! They let you sample some pure honey at the end of the tour and I couldn't resist buying a tiny mini jar to take home with me.
My favorite stop was a tea plantation - it was huge! We drove through acres and acres of the tea plants and then ended up at the factory where they actually make the tea. We went on a short tour of the process of making tea and then sat down to strawberry tarts and fresh tea while overlooking the vast, green tea fields. It was so so cool and the taste of the tea was incredible but if I would have gotten to have seconds, I would have had another strawberry tart. YUM. ($5 tea and tarts, $6 souvenirs (tea and honey)
Finally we stopped at a butterfly farm which housed not only hundreds of butterflies but also many local snakes, scorpions, insects and fish of the region. I was amazed at the butterflies - you weren't allowed to touch them, but many of them let you get really close to snap a picture (pictures to come later). It was a really good tour and when it was over our guide dropped us off back at the guesthouse where we gathered some supplies to do an afternoon hike.
After lunch (Indian food from the cheap stalls on the street) we went for a hike on one of the many hiking trails. Hike "No. 4" took us by a waterfall and into some forest and then looped us back towards town. We got soaked from the late afternoon rains and afterwards headed back to the hostel for a warm shower and some relaxing. It rained hard all night and it was hard to go back outside for dinner. We spent the evening in the common room with a bottle of wine and National Geographic on TV. ($4 lunch, $2 laundry, $13 wine, $3 snacks, $8 dinner) Total = $75 (for two people)
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